American Politics

[Tiny 12]

The 1993 Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act was effective in August 1993:

https://www.congress.gov/bill/103rd-...ouse-bill/2264

When Clinton and the Dems began work on that 1993 legislation the unemployment rate was still above 7%. That was when Repubs were squawking about it being the exact wrong time to raise taxes because, you know, millions of jobs would be wiped out.

Didn't happen. Instead, the exact opposite of what the Repubs were squawking about happened.

When Biden and the Dems began work on their great American Rescue Plan legislation the unemployment rate was still above 6%.

Same squawking from Repubs. Same exact opposite result.

See the BLS Unemployment Rate Table here:

https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000

When a country comes out of a recession the unemployment rate decreases. Ascribing all the credit to the political party in power doesn't make sense. And ascribing credit to increasing tax rates really doesn't make sense, based what little I know about macroeconomics.

[Tiny 12]

Donnie the Dumbass did cause the COVID recession. He did absolutely nothing right except for Operation Dork Speed and any idiot could have done that. Donnie the Dumbass actually made things worse in many respects. The US would have been better off during COVID if he had just stayed at the Mar-a-Lago Putt-Putt and McDonalds Emporium and played golf or buried his head in the sand.

But, yes, it was a COVID recession and every moron who says that Biden caused it is way off base.

Agreed again. Saying Biden caused the COVID recession is even more bizarre than saying Trump caused it. I also agree that if Trump had just worked on Operation Warp Speed and pushing the vaccines through the FDA, and left the public relations aspects of the pandemic up to people like Fauci and Brix, we would have been better off.

Please explain why USA GDP performance in 2020 was 2.4 to 7 percentage points better than the other top 5 developed countries -- see post #10168.

[PVMonger]

I'd a hell of a lot rather live in Martha's Vineyard than South Texas, where the largest number of Latin American asylum seekers start out. South Texas is perhaps the most impoverished part of the USA. I saw a couple of the immigrants interviewed who were in Martha's Vineyard. They were damn glad to be there. But the locals, who likely are mostly greenies, won't even stand for construction of windmills offshore of Massachusetts. So you know they're going to throw up a stink at this. No windmills or poor Venezuelan asylum seekers in their backyards. Hypocrites.

See, here's the problem.

One one hand you have the anti-everything Moron Brigade claiming that everything about the relocation was above-board. They hear that, of course, from the two idiot governors (Abbot and his partner Costello aka DeSatan) as well as rightwingnut media. They complain about government spending but are completely OK with DeSatan using taxpayer money to do this. They complain about "government overreach" but are completely OK with the government overreaching in this case. They complain about the government lying but are completely OK with the government lying here (but, to be fair, they were completely OK with Donnie the Dumbass lying his ass off for 6 years) so who knows what they stand for.

On the other hand you have the immigrants themselves who say they were lied to and mislead. There are dozens on first-hand reports about this. Here are some: https://www.npr.org/2022/09/15/11231...rthas-vineyard and https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...d/10410896002/ and https://www.reuters.com/world/us/rep...nt-2022-09-15/ and https://www.politico.com/news/2022/0...e-cod-00057247 The Moron Brigade will, predictably, say that this is "fake news" and that the only source of "real news" is Donnie the Dumbass and his merry band of rightwingnut minions.

What I find absolutely comical is that the wingers say that transporting the migrants from MV to Cape Cod means that MV didn't want them when in reality, they were able to get access to more and better services at the AFB in CC. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/0...e-cod-00057247.

But keep on drinking that KoolAid. What flavor is it? Orange? Red? Or just ignorant?

[MarquisdeSade1]

Biden's Approval Rating Surges After Hitting Low Mark In July, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; Half Of Americans Say Trump Should Be Prosecuted On Criminal Charges Over His Handling Of Classified Documents

https://poll.qu.edu/poll-release?releaseid=3854

Biden Approval Rating Gets Big Bounce From Young Americans

https://www.investors.com/politics/b...ung-americans/

Dems continue to expand their lead over Repubs in the Generic Ballot Poll of Polls:

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com...eneric-ballot/

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/ep...vote-7361.html

Even Rasmussen can only squeak out a mere 1 percentage point advantage for their beloved Repubs.

I'm guessing more fake news to help the DNC I mean Wall St.

Who I am I kidding lets just call it what it is, the Wall Street owned DNC.

[EihTooms]

My point about the oil leases was that Obama had more common sense than Biden. If some posters here have brought up the millions of acres of undeveloped oil and gas leases and thousands of unused permits, and used that to back up Biden's false claim that the oil and gas refiners and producers were holding back supply and jacking up prices, then they don't understand the industry. And, much as the 2500 people who trespassed on the grounds of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, they're misinformed and gullible.

The 1990/1991 recession was a pip squeak. GDP was down 1. 4% from peak to trough. And Clinton's tax bill wasn't passed until over 2 years after the end of the recession. Aside: Clinton later said he raised taxes too much in 1993, and he and a Republican House cut the capital gains tax in his second term.

The recession caused by COVID (not Trump, you should stop saying that, you're very intelligent and that's out of character), saw a drop in GDP of 19.2%. And Biden was looking to raise taxes a year after it ended.

That said, given the ridiculous amount of stimulus provided by the American Rescue Plan, almost 10% of GDP dumped into the economy, I imagine the Democrats could have raised taxes a good bit. That would have had a favorable effect on inflation. It would still be a suck ass idea, in my opinion. In yours I imagine not. I'm tired of writing so will stop at that.

Oil, Gas Industry Stockpiled Drilling Leases Before Biden Pause.
January 29, 2021

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/enviro...re-biden-pause

A stockpile of federal oil and gas leases across an Ohio-sized swath of land in the West shows the fossil fuel industry was preparing for a leasing moratorium for years, former Interior Department officials say.

President Joe Biden imposed what he described as a pause on federal oil and gas leasing on Wednesday as part of his climate policywhile allowing millions of acres of existing leases to remain unaffected. Nevertheless, industry representatives and elected officials in the West lambasted the move, saying itll deprive Western states of much-needed income for basic state services.

But the industrys huge inventory of undeveloped existing leases and drilling permits are evidence that the oil and gas industry anticipated a pause in leasing long ago, said John Leshy, a law professor at the University of California, Hastings and former Interior solicitor in the Clinton administration.

That makes the sky is falling rhetoric from the industry and its allies a bit over the top, Leshy said Thursday. Especially since many of the Trump-era lease offerings attracted no bids, or only minimum bids.

Oil and gas production was occurring on less than half of the more than 26 million acres of land already under a federal lease by the end of fiscal 2019, according to the most recent federal Bureau of Land Management data, which doesnt include millions of acres leased in the Trump administrations final year.

Energy companies have the right to drill federal oil and gas leases for 10 years, and many of the leases sold over the last year were auctioned by the land bureau for as little as $2 per acre. The land bureau didnt respond to a request for comment Thursday.

(And more)

The lengths some Repubs go to slavishly cater to one of the biggest corporate welfare recipients of all time is pathetic.

[EihTooms]

We weren't staying indoors where I live. We hadn't been staying indoors since May of 2020. Please provide evidence of countries with MUCH (emphasis on much) higher rates of inflation than the USA. I'll do it for you. This shows YoY CPI inflation at 6/30/2022, for the same list of countries I used before to show April, 2021 CPI inflation. For completeness sake, note that USA data is available through August, 2022. And USA YoY CPI inflation was 9. 1% in June, 8. 5% in July, and 8. 3% in August respectively. I'm using 6/30/2022 because that's the most recent date for which all the countries have reported numbers.

USA 9. 1%.

Australia 6. 1%.

Japan 2. 4%.

Switzerland 3. 4%.

Singapore 6. 7%.

Hong Kong 1. 8%.

UK 9. 4%.

EU 8. 6%.

As to jobs creation, what I'd like to know is why are 5. 5 million Americans seeking work, while the number of job vacancies is 11.2 million? That's an all time high spread I believe. The labor force participation rate is 62.4%, down from 63.4% pre-COVID, and 67% at its peak. So you can't blame it on "not enough people. ".

Glad to see you're at least citing numbers for countries when they were not still in the depths of Trump's Pandemic downturn vs when Biden's roaring economy was in blessed recovery from it. LOL. Yeah, the United Kingdom's inflation rate was 0. 7%. Sure, bad old Biden's legislation put ours higher that.

But then the United Kingdom's inflation rate climbed above 10%. I posted the report of it here and asked if anyone knew how Biden did that to those poor Brits. Nobody knew.

Now they're celebrating a recent dip to merely.

9. 9%.

UK inflation rate unexpectedly dips to 9.9% as fuel prices decline

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/14/uk-i...s-decline.html

The consumer price index rose 9.9% annually, according to estimates published Wednesday by the Office for National Statistics.

Last week, new British Prime Minister Liz Truss announced an emergency fiscal package capping annual household energy bills at 2,500 ($2,881.90) for the next two years.

BTW, do you have a link for any of the figures you cited in your posts about this? You know, something like the reports, charts and data links I usually provide along with the pertinent entry for it.

[Tiny 12]

All illegals are applying for asylum. They are illegal and looking for a better life. Why not send them to Martha's Vineyard where it is a wealthy prosperous area. Do you think they should just put them in the desert or a hell hole city like San Fran or in a poverty area? They should be happy being in an area with billionaires. Why are you being racist with denying them prosperity?

I'd a hell of a lot rather live in Martha's Vineyard than South Texas, where the largest number of Latin American asylum seekers start out. South Texas is perhaps the most impoverished part of the USA. I saw a couple of the immigrants interviewed who were in Martha's Vineyard. They were damn glad to be there. But the locals, who likely are mostly greenies, won't even stand for construction of windmills offshore of Massachusetts. So you know they're going to throw up a stink at this. No windmills or poor Venezuelan asylum seekers in their backyards. Hypocrites.

[Xpartan]

Gee, another Repub who copies-and-pastes without a citation.

Here's the sources: https://babylonbee.com/news/migrants...o-electricity/.

All Travv's (quote / unquote) quotes are from those Onion wannabees, LOL.

[PVMonger]

We weren't staying indoors where I live. We hadn't been staying indoors since May of 2020. Please provide evidence of countries with MUCH (emphasis on much) higher rates of inflation than the USA. I'll do it for you. This shows YoY CPI inflation at 6/30/2022, for the same list of countries I used before to show April, 2021 CPI inflation. For completeness sake, note that USA data is available through August, 2022. And USA YoY CPI inflation was 9. 1% in June, 8. 5% in July, and 8. 3% in August respectively. I'm using 6/30/2022 because that's the most recent date for which all the countries have reported numbers.

USA 9. 1%.

Australia 6. 1%.

Japan 2. 4%.

Switzerland 3. 4%.

Singapore 6. 7%.

Hong Kong 1. 8%.

UK 9. 4%.

EU 8. 6%.

As to jobs creation, what I'd like to know is why are 5. 5 million Americans seeking work, while the number of job vacancies is 11.2 million? That's an all time high spread I believe. The labor force participation rate is 62.4%, down from 63.4% pre-COVID, and 67% at its peak. So you can't blame it on "not enough people. ".

The problem with your "analysis" is that you want to inject "much" into the equation. What I have said, and what others have said, is that inflation is worldwide and was caused in large part by COVID, the "shutdowns" in various countries and then by the pent-up demand for goods coupled with a COVID-bashed supply chain.

There are several sources like those following that explain the situation: https://tradingeconomics.com/country...inflation-rate and https://www.forbes.com/advisor/perso...on-by-country/ and https://www.globaldata.com/media/bus...es-globaldata/.

And, to answer your question about countries with MUCH higher inflation rates than the US, how about this.

Venezuela — 1198.0%.

Sudan — 340.0%.

Lebanon — 201.0%.

Syria — 139.0%.

Suriname — 63.3%.

Zimbabwe — 60.7%.

Argentina — 51.2%.

Turkey — 36.1%.

[EihTooms]

My point about the oil leases was that Obama had more common sense than Biden. If some posters here have brought up the millions of acres of undeveloped oil and gas leases and thousands of unused permits, and used that to back up Biden's false claim that the oil and gas refiners and producers were holding back supply and jacking up prices, then they don't understand the industry. And, much as the 2500 people who trespassed on the grounds of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, they're misinformed and gullible.

The 1990/1991 recession was a pip squeak. GDP was down 1. 4% from peak to trough. And Clinton's tax bill wasn't passed until over 2 years after the end of the recession. Aside: Clinton later said he raised taxes too much in 1993, and he and a Republican House cut the capital gains tax in his second term.

The recession caused by COVID (not Trump, you should stop saying that, you're very intelligent and that's out of character), saw a drop in GDP of 19.2%. And Biden was looking to raise taxes a year after it ended.

That said, given the ridiculous amount of stimulus provided by the American Rescue Plan, almost 10% of GDP dumped into the economy, I imagine the Democrats could have raised taxes a good bit. That would have had a favorable effect on inflation. It would still be a suck ass idea, in my opinion. In yours I imagine not. I'm tired of writing so will stop at that.

The 1993 Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act was effective in August 1993:

https://www.congress.gov/bill/103rd-...ouse-bill/2264

When Clinton and the Dems began work on that 1993 legislation the unemployment rate was still above 7%. That was when Repubs were squawking about it being the exact wrong time to raise taxes because, you know, millions of jobs would be wiped out.

Didn't happen. Instead, the exact opposite of what the Repubs were squawking about happened.

When Biden and the Dems began work on their great American Rescue Plan legislation the unemployment rate was still above 6%.

Same squawking from Repubs. Same exact opposite result.

See the BLS Unemployment Rate Table here:

https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000

[PVMonger]

My point about the oil leases was that Obama had more common sense than Biden. If some posters here have brought up the millions of acres of undeveloped oil and gas leases and thousands of unused permits, and used that to back up Biden's false claim that the oil and gas refiners and producers were holding back supply and jacking up prices, then they don't understand the industry. And, much as the 2500 people who trespassed on the grounds of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, they're misinformed and gullible.

The 1990/1991 recession was a pip squeak. GDP was down 1. 4% from peak to trough. And Clinton's tax bill wasn't passed until over 2 years after the end of the recession. Aside: Clinton later said he raised taxes too much in 1993, and he and a Republican House cut the capital gains tax in his second term.

The recession caused by COVID (not Trump, you should stop saying that, you're very intelligent and that's out of character), saw a drop in GDP of 19.2%. And Biden was looking to raise taxes a year after it ended.

That said, given the ridiculous amount of stimulus provided by the American Rescue Plan, almost 10% of GDP dumped into the economy, I imagine the Democrats could have raised taxes a good bit. That would have had a favorable effect on inflation. It would still be a suck ass idea, in my opinion. In yours I imagine not. I'm tired of writing so will stop at that.

Donnie the Dumbass did cause the COVID recession. He did absolutely nothing right except for Operation Dork Speed and any idiot could have done that. Donnie the Dumbass actually made things worse in many respects. The US would have been better off during COVID if he had just stayed at the Mar-a-Lago Putt-Putt and McDonalds Emporium and played golf or buried his head in the sand.

But, yes, it was a COVID recession and every moron who says that Biden caused it is way off base.

[Tiny 12]

I realize you came to these discussions late. But those Repub oil lease arguments were destroyed here a dozen times over already.

Also, Clinton and his Dem-controlled Congress raised the tax rate on the top margin right on the heels of Bush1's Repub Recession in the 1993 Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, one of the great economic legislations passed without a single Repub vote. Of course, what followed was one of the greatest economic expansions, jobs creation and deficit / debt reduction runs in history.

Yeah, one of the excuses the Repubs claimed was their reason for not voting for it was they said Clinton and the Dems would destroy the economy and wipe out millions of jobs if they raised taxes during the recovery from one of their patented Recessions. LOL.

My point about the oil leases was that Obama had more common sense than Biden. If some posters here have brought up the millions of acres of undeveloped oil and gas leases and thousands of unused permits, and used that to back up Biden's false claim that the oil and gas refiners and producers were holding back supply and jacking up prices, then they don't understand the industry. And, much as the 2500 people who trespassed on the grounds of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, they're misinformed and gullible.

The 1990/1991 recession was a pip squeak. GDP was down 1. 4% from peak to trough. And Clinton's tax bill wasn't passed until over 2 years after the end of the recession. Aside: Clinton later said he raised taxes too much in 1993, and he and a Republican House cut the capital gains tax in his second term.

The recession caused by COVID (not Trump, you should stop saying that, you're very intelligent and that's out of character), saw a drop in GDP of 19.2%. And Biden was looking to raise taxes a year after it ended.

That said, given the ridiculous amount of stimulus provided by the American Rescue Plan, almost 10% of GDP dumped into the economy, I imagine the Democrats could have raised taxes a good bit. That would have had a favorable effect on inflation. It would still be a suck ass idea, in my opinion. In yours I imagine not. I'm tired of writing so will stop at that.

[Tiny 12]

Inflation before the American Rescue Plan was passed? We were staying indoors, not going anywhere, not doing anything waiting for Trump's Pandemic virus to "go away without a vaccine", millions of jobs had been wiped out, thousands of businesses were closed forever. Is that the inflation control method we should return to?

I wonder. Did Larry Summers explain why countries that didn't pass the American Rescue Plan in the wake of the massive economic destruction wrought by Trump's Pandemic had and still have much higher rates of inflation and much weaker jobs creation than in America?

We weren't staying indoors where I live. We hadn't been staying indoors since May of 2020. Please provide evidence of countries with MUCH (emphasis on much) higher rates of inflation than the USA. I'll do it for you. This shows YoY CPI inflation at 6/30/2022, for the same list of countries I used before to show April, 2021 CPI inflation. For completeness sake, note that USA data is available through August, 2022. And USA YoY CPI inflation was 9. 1% in June, 8. 5% in July, and 8. 3% in August respectively. I'm using 6/30/2022 because that's the most recent date for which all the countries have reported numbers.

USA 9. 1%.

Australia 6. 1%.

Japan 2. 4%.

Switzerland 3. 4%.

Singapore 6. 7%.

Hong Kong 1. 8%.

UK 9. 4%.

EU 8. 6%.

As to jobs creation, what I'd like to know is why are 5. 5 million Americans seeking work, while the number of job vacancies is 11.2 million? That's an all time high spread I believe. The labor force participation rate is 62.4%, down from 63.4% pre-COVID, and 67% at its peak. So you can't blame it on "not enough people. ".

[Tiny 12]

You forgot to mention that President Biden said "$2000 for every American" and got pilloried, absolutely pilloried by MAGAts when it turned out to be $1400 plus the $600 that Donnie the Dumbass already sent. They, of course, said that Biden lied blah, blah, blah.

But who originally proposed the $2000 figure? Yep. Donnie the Dumbass did. https://www.vox.com/2020/12/23/22197...timulus-checks.

Agreed again. Trump and Pelosi were pushing for $2000. Some Senate Republicans, like Democratic economist Larry Summers, saw the writing on the wall. Trump and Pelosi compromised with McConnell at $600. Trump's a populist who's going to do whatever he thinks will get him the most votes. Like I said, in his heart, I think he swings more blue than red. At one time he said he didn't have a problem with partial birth abortion, and proposed a Bernie Sanders / Elizabeth Warren wealth tax.

[ScatManDoo]

Biden's Approval Rating Surges After Hitting Low Mark In July, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; Half Of Americans Say Trump Should Be Prosecuted On Criminal Charges Over His Handling Of Classified Documents

https://poll.qu.edu/poll-release?releaseid=3854

Biden Approval Rating Gets Big Bounce From Young Americans

https://www.investors.com/politics/b...ung-americans/

Dems continue to expand their lead over Repubs in the Generic Ballot Poll of Polls:

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com...eneric-ballot/

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/ep...vote-7361.html

Even Rasmussen can only squeak out a mere 1 percentage point advantage for their beloved Repubs.

My PredictIt bets on Democratic candidates and that Party's results from the midterms are looking pretty good.

Even though my bets that TrumpShit would get indicted by September 1st were lost.